[1] Crown Prince Ludwig suffers under the authoritarian education of his father King Maximilian II and has no interest in his militaristic attitude.

Maximilian II dies unexpectedly of erysipelas, so Ludwig, full of idealism, ascends the Bavarian throne at the age of 18.

At a time when war and poverty are omnipresent, he believes in a better world and wants to use his power to ensure that his people can live in peace and happiness.

He wants his kingdom to become a place where beauty, art and culture will flourish; instead of weapons, Ludwig wants to invest public money in theatre, music and education.

To achieve this, he instructs the well-known music lover Johann von Lutz to track down Wagner and bring him to his court.

The news of the defeat of his army hits him hard, since he has spent the money that was intended for modern rifles on musical instruments.

As a result, Ludwig meets a young singer, Heinrich Vogel, whom he wants to hear singing as Lohengrin, which incurs Wagner's displeasure.

This leads to a scandal, and Ludwig cancels his already planned and longed-for wedding because he realises that, due to his homosexuality, which he does not confess to her or to others, he cannot have more than friendship with his fiancée.

Bavaria's defeat by Prussia forces the country to enter the 1870-71 war against France as a compulsory ally of Otto von Bismarck.

Bismarck's efforts to create an all-German empire, headed by an emperor, destroys the dream of a sovereign Bavarian kingdom continuing to exist.

Ludwig senses the plan and intends to blow himself up with his castles before he can be chased away from them, but the project fails due to the inappropriate explosives.